Tasneem Essop | Executive Director of Climate Action Network

"There's nothing like watching the home that you live in being demolished by bulldozers to make you politically conscious."

Growing up in Cape Town's District 6 in the 1970s, Tasneem experienced racial segregation, forced eviction and discrimination first hand. Her anti-apartheid activism eventually took her into politics, serving as a provincial environment minister in South Africa’s post-apartheid ANC government. As a radical minister within a conservative bureaucracy, Tasneem fought to connect environmental issues to poverty and development.

Since then, Tasneem has served as WWF's head of global climate policy, going behind the scenes as head of delegation at the Paris Climate Talks, and now leads the Climate Action Network – the planet’s largest coalition for climate justice.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Climate Action Network website: https://climatenetwork.org

Social media: @TasneemEssop, @CANIntl

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